The mission of the Clinical Evaluation and Epidemiology Core within the University of Pittsburgh ONRC is to support population-based clinical investigations. These areas of research focus on co-morbidities of obesity and nutritional diseases, and upon interventions, and have a high potential for clinical translation. To achieve this mission of supporting clinical outcome research, this core provides centralized facilities and trained personnel for clinical evaluations; equipment and expertise for assessing sub-clinical vascular disease; and epidemiological expertise in clinical trial design, recruitment of volunteers, and data management. The mission of the Clinical Evaluation and Epidemiology Core is different from that of the Body Composition and Energy Balance Core. While the latter is designed to support clinical investigations of metabolism and patho-physiology, the mission of the Clinical Evaluation and Epidemiology Core is more directly aimed at clinical outcomes and comorbid conditions. Diabetes research has been a long-standing emphasis of the Clinical Evaluation Sub-core, and through the addition of the Vascular Imaging Sub-core, the Clinical Evaluation and Epidemiology Core has expanded its mission to encompass the assessment of cardiovascular disease, another major co-morbidity of obesity. In addition to supporting a number of established obesity and nutrition clinical trials across the lifespan within the local population, the ONRC has extended its mission to encompass the international obesity epidemic through the Epidemiology Sub-core. Through the Bariatric Surgery Research Initiative, the Clinical Evaluation and Epidemiology Core has also added to its mission the goal of fostering the development of a strong, multi-disciplinary research component for one of the largest clinical programs of bariatric surgery in the country.